


come what may

by mortalitasi



Series: ad lucem [8]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Prompt Fill, Romance, flashfic, slight angst!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 02:31:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16484369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mortalitasi/pseuds/mortalitasi
Summary: Hawke has doubts. Fenris assuages them.





	come what may

**Author's Note:**

> i have a chaptered thing i need to finish for them, but until then, have a tiny ficlet!

“Fenris?”

At the call of his name, he looks up at her—she has her back to him, seated as she is in front of her vanity, going through her nightly routine, her cosmetics sprawled before her on the dark wood. The scent of roses and blackcurrant lingers in her rooms, especially strong near the mirror next to which her collection of vials stands; she has abandoned the bristled brush she was using to comb through the luxuriant length of her ebony hair, sleek as a raven’s wing, and is instead staring listlessly at some point on the wall.

He immediately straightens, something in him growing tense at the tone of her voice.

“I am here,” he says, and in three steps has crossed the space between the bed and the vanity. He comes to stand behind her, watching her reflection in the mirror: her face betrays no turmoil. Her eyes, moon-pale, are clear as ever. But he has known and loved this woman long enough to be aware that a placid mask means nothing.

She lifts her gaze, so that their eyes connect through the mirror; in this low light, surrounded by her things, in her chambers, clad only in a silken nightshift, she is more vulnerable than anywhere else. Everywhere he looks, he sees something that tells him a story about her. She, who guards her privacy so fiercely, allows herself to be laid bare to him. He still can’t imagine how to begin appreciating that kind of trust in a way that will leave him satisfied. He has the rest of their lives to figure it out.

“I’m afraid I’ve been very selfish,” she says quietly.

Hard to believe. But he lets her continue.

“Do you remember when I told you—when I said I would always protect you?”

He rests a palm on her shoulder, rubbing a circle into the white skin of her neck. “I remember it well.”

“The days are growing shorter,” she murmurs. “Tomorrow, I answer Meredith’s summons. And I can’t stop thinking that this will not be the end of it.”

“Hawke…?”

Her lips press into a thin line, and he can suddenly read the self-loathing there, in her, so starkly, that it strikes at his heart. “I might not be able to keep my promise, Fenris. It would not be the first time I’ve failed in such a regard.”

Fenris grasps at the red-cushioned stool she’s using, turning it harshly with a shriek of wood on wood, until they are face-to-face, and she is looking up at him through the thick fringe of her lashes. His hands release, again, traveling up, until he’s cupping the shape of her face between his palms, the waves of her hair streaming over his knuckles.

“I will not hear it,” he declares, seeing her eyes widen, just a little. “None of it. Tomorrow,  _we_  answer Meredith’s summons. We go together, not apart. Never apart. Nothing will happen to you—I will not allow it. You will be able to haunt my footsteps for as long and as thoroughly as you wish.”

That makes the tiniest of smiles quirk her mouth, and it ignites a familiar, sweet urge; he sees no reason to disobey his own desires, and so he leans in, kissing her, making it soft, speaking through it the comfort he cannot articulate as well as he would like. She shivers, sighing, letting the tide of his affection wash her away from the unpleasant cold of reality. He does not stop when he pulls back the first time: he presses another kiss to her mouth, to her cheeks, the center of her forehead. When he is done, she is glassy-eyed, her shoulders laxer than before.

His voice is husky with longing when he speaks next. “Do you understand? Together.”

She lifts her hands, covering his with hers, and nods. “Together.”


End file.
